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UN envoy concludes Damascus talks on constitutional committee
DAMASCUS, Sept 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The UN special envoy for Syria said he
held “successful” talks Monday with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on
forming a committee to draft a post-war constitution.
“Today I have concluded another round of very successful discussions with
Foreign Minister Moallem and we addressed all outstanding issues related to
the constitutional committee,” Geir Pedersen told reporters in Damascus.
The diplomat said he also held “good discussions” with Nasr al-Hariri, the
head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission opposition grouping.
Syria’s foreign ministry said the meeting with Pedersen was “positive and
constructive”, in a statement posted on its social media channels.
The UN-backed push to form a constitutional committee has been bogged down
by disagreements with President Bashar al-Assad’s government over the makeup
of body.
Damascus hopes to amend the current constitution, while the opposition
wants to write a new one from scratch.
Last week, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said an agreement had
been reached concerning the “the composition of the committee”.
The committee is to include 150 members — a third picked by the regime,
another by the opposition, and the remaining third by the United Nations.
The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria on Monday decried its
exclusion from the committee as “unjust”, saying it undermined the principles
of democracy.
Besides its composition, the mechanisms that will govern the committee’s
work have yet to be agreed on, prompting fears among diplomats that concrete
progress is still months away.
According to the pro-Damascus daily Al-Watan, Pedersen could make a formal
announcement on the constitutional committee at the UN General Assembly,
which opens in New York this week.
Numerous rounds of UN-led peace talks have failed to end a war that has
killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since erupting in 2011
with the repression of anti-government protests.
In recent years, a parallel negotiations track led by regime ally Russia
and rebel backer Turkey has taken precedence.
With key military backing from Russia, Assad’s forces have retaken large
parts of Syria from rebels and jihadists since 2015, and now control around
60 percent of the country.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1914 hrs